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The only problem I have with the rant is that he honestly thinks Republican parents would be against their children having higher education skills that challenge parental authority.

Lots of Republican parents (mine included) would be thrilled to kill the public education system. They think it’s indoctrinating their children, they think it’s turning them against good ol’ Buybull teaching.

I was at home a few weeks ago, and my sister, brother-in-law, and mother (mostly the first two, my mother tried to stay out of the argument) were talking to me about my atheism. They were saying things like “logic and reasoning are bad” which made no sense to me at all, but it makes sense to people consumed by thoughts of keeping people in the system.

That is thoroughly disgusting. It is scary that they don’t even try to disguise their intentions anymore. I fear for my society.

On a side note. Wouldn’t it be great to have those two towering Texan intellectuals, Bush Jr and Rick Perry face off in a battle of wits? I’d pay to see that. Perhaps they could debate on how the fuck people as stupid as they are consistently get voted into high office.

Now, look… let’s not allow our skepticism to lead us to make judgments about politics. You’re just asking for another Deep Rift here. Stick to Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster… which are probably part of the Texas education standards. But don’t make it political!!

This should be shouted from the roof tops. They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this. This should be political suicide. It should be all the proof needed to vindicate any Democrat who was sneered at for suggesting that Republicans are anti-education and pro-racism. It should get Republicans slowly backing away from their party, or at very least get them looking deep inside themselves and feeling a tinge of self-disgust when they force themselves to continue voting Republican.

All of this should be the case. Not just in an ideal world, but in a world that made a lick of sense. In any world where all humans had the slightest bit of self-awareness, rationality, and basic decency. As a result, it will probably not be the case in our world. Fuck . Just fuck .

Judging by the freakshow this year, I really shudder to think who the GOP candidates for the 2016 election are going to be.

It may be that Pres. Obama looked unbeatable earlier on, when the GOP party brass was working out just who’d be getting into the ring to get whupped. You know, throw a bone to the party faithful who you have to kiss up to, but who you don’t actually want running the place. Grab some Natural Born Losers, give ’em their day in the sun, and when they’ve failed, they’ll toe the line better next time around.
However, with constant pivoting to the center, the President has damaged his progressive base support to the point where he might actually face losing – and this is the crop of Icons of Living Fail the GOP has now have wedded itself to for the nationals.

That’s one theory I’ve heard a few times.

Another is that they’re concentrating on the House and Senate issues and not worrying about the Executive, as they’ve figured they can shut the White House down totally with Legislative do-nothing strategy.

Lastly, there is always the theory that Mitt is, in fact, the very best they could come up with this time around, and that they’re serious about trying to get him all the way.

We’ll know come 2016 – if we see someone put forward with a certain amount of sensible gravitas, who tells the right-wingers to Shut Up or Get Out, we’ll know 2012 was a gimme.
If we see another Unload The Clown Car, Boys! then Mitt was their real pick.
Either one is pretty scary, actually.

Back in the 90s, “Outcome Based Education” was a huge boogie man in right-wing circles. Apparently, the public schools were going to stop teaching facts and let little Johnny and Jane make up their own answers. As I remember the propaganda, OBE was going to be all touchy-feely and and those evil socialist teachers were just going to promote class after class of brainwashed dullards whose heads where filled with Left-wing New Age psychobabble but couldn’t read or do basic math because correcting their mistakes would hurt their “self-esteem.”

I think many or most Republicans would justify their continued support for the GOP by pointing out that this platform represents an extreme position, which neither they personally, nor (in their opinion) most of the party, necessarily agree with. That’s been more or less the argument I get from certain family members. So far, I haven’t been able to come up with a good answer to that. Suggestions are welcome.

Wouldn’t it be great to have those two towering Texan intellectuals, Bush Jr and Rick Perry face off in a battle of wits? I’d pay to see that.”

Why, when you know the outcome? Bush Fils would kick Perry’s ass and have another bourbon and branch.

He was dumb, but not quite as dumb as he let on. His dumb was from laziness and a sense of entitlement, but I can guarantee you that he’s not dumb about money, or where to educate his kids, or what tailor on Savile Row is the best value for the money, or how to to orchestrate a campaign of hate and dirty smears against assorted candidates running against Republicans. From the Willie Horton incident with Michael Dukakis, to Al Gore invented to Internet to the swiftboating of John Kerry–he was in the middle of it all and egging it on.

Y’all underestimated that sack of shit, every single time. Texans kept telling you that you had to watch out for him, that there wasn’t any trick he wasn’t scummy enough to pull, tricks that dumbass Americans would fall for every single time.. But nobody would listen.

Perhaps they could debate on how the fuck people as stupid as they are consistently get voted into high office.

Because the people voting for them–all across America, not just in Texas–are even dumber, on average, than either of those two scumbags.

I think it’s mis-remembering. The Young-Turks had a stint on MS-NBC but were thrown out / or left for not being corporate enough. The Turks don’t necessarily like the Obama administration and attack it now and then on points much like Ed does. It could be those attacks on the admin that come off as conservative but the group is firmly left of center.

I’ve been sharing the platform around. The most common response is disbelief that the Texas-(R) is so blatant in its regressiveness.

They want to do away with early childhood development programs – I read that as including free/reduced price food that kids get. For some (too many!) kids those meals make up a big part of their diet.

the louder they shout about what they really want the better the more they pander to the lowest motives of their base the better.
what ever can be done to encourage them to drop all the pretense of moderation, of caring about anyone else should be done.
How can we get the “leaders” of the GOP to come out in public in favor of all of this?
Get Mitch McConnell on record get Boner to endorse it get Mittens in public to admit it is what he believes is correct policy.

I am tired of all this playing to the “middle” of both parties it is such BS it is one of the major things that give the political process such a low public opinion.
uncle frogy

I think many or most Republicans would justify their continued support for the GOP by pointing out that this platform represents an extreme position, which neither they personally, nor (in their opinion) most of the party, necessarily agree with. That’s been more or less the argument I get from certain family members. So far, I haven’t been able to come up with a good answer to that. Suggestions are welcome.

You could ask just where this silent majority is hiding, and why given the damage being done to the party by extremists they are not doing anything about it.

I think many or most Republicans would justify their continued support for the GOP by pointing out that this platform represents an extreme position, which neither they personally, nor (in their opinion) most of the party, necessarily agree with. That’s been more or less the argument I get from certain family members. So far, I haven’t been able to come up with a good answer to that. Suggestions are welcome.

Ask them what specific parts of it they would like to see be come law. If they say “Well, none of it,” or “Well, just one or two things,” then you can ask why they are supporting the people who made this wishlist. Ask them if they think that the people who wrote this list up would balk if, given the chance, they could make it all law. Ask them if that’s the kind of people they want running the country.

In other words, ask them if these extreme positions are being prevented from being law by a lack of desire or just a lack of power. Then double-check to see if they want to give the writers more power or not.

I am not a lawyer, so take my explanation with a grain of salt. It’s entirely possible I have details wrong, but this is my understanding:

The Twenty-Fourth and Fifteenth Amendments would still make it unconstitutional to take away voting rights based on non-payment of poll taxes or race, but federal oversight to ensure that discrimination wasn’t being carried out would be severely limited.

The Voting Rights Act ensures that tests and other practices that might be used to disenfranchise specific groups are not allowed, with states and counties that have a history of discrimination and voter suppression requiring preclearance by the Department of Justice on any changes to voting practices. The VRA also requires multilingual ballots be made available on request. Jurisdictions lacking protection for non-English speakers could essentially disenfranchise any of them overnight.

We support phasing out of Social Security while allowing Americans the flexibility of investing their Social Security payments while continuing to fulfill our obligation to older Americans

members of the Minnesota House and Senate should introduce and support legislation defining conception as: “when the DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) of Mankind is joined.” We should also urge them to introduce and support ‘right to life’ legislation that establishes ‘personhood’ at the time of conception.

Action should be taken leading to legislative guarantees and protection of the father’s inalienable right to decide against any unilateral or preemptive decision to terminate his child’s developing life.

We support protecting the right to religious expression for all peoples, including the public display of the Ten Commandments and the right to prayer at government events in the name of a specific deity.

Parents (or legal guardians) should maintain access to all of their minor child’s health records, including sexual health records, without the minor child’s consent.

educators who discuss creation science should be protected from disciplinary action and science standards should recognize that there is controversy pertaining to the theory of evolution.

As Republicans we support the nullification of unconstitutional federal law in accordance with state sovereignty and we support restoring states rights under the 10th amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The rule of Law in Minnesota is solely based on the United States and Minnesota Constitutions, not on international or Sharia law.

We support maintaining clean air, water and land by addressing threats proven by peer-reviewed scientific research using sensible and economically reasonable solutions. We oppose policies, legislation and mandates that are based on the theory that humans are responsible for global climate change including the Theory of Man-Made Global Warming, as well as any energy policies that raise the cost of energy to consumers and do nothing to protect the environment.

We should reduce or restrict government ownership of our land to no more than 40%. We believe that there should not be a net gain of land by the Minnesota DNR or nonprofit land trusts and that all conservation easements should have a sunset.

we believe the United States should end its participation in the United Nations, Agenda 21, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund altogether.

Possibly nothing. But it would make it legal to impose tests like literacy tests on potential voters, literacy tests being the most common. Back in the day every white voter turned out to be literate and almost no black voters did. There were other variants like poll taxes and clauses which made it easier to vote if you grandparents voted (i.e., if your grandparents were not slaves).

I am not sure what they were thinking. Even if they could get the rights act removed they’d still have to get tests imposed and they’d still have to come up with some sort of test that favored whatever group it is that they think should be able to vote. Most black people are literate nowadays, so if they really wanted a literacy test they’d have to apply it unevenly to get rid of the blacks without getting rid of a substantial number of white republicans.

Most likely it is aimed at Spanish speakers–impose a English literacy requirement on voters which would disenfranchise a substantial number of Hispanics but only a small percentage of whites.

For what it’s worth, I think Cenk Uygur is right on the money.
I’d be slamming that thing out into the public’s eye with every newspaper and in every news cycle I could. “The Republicans Want your Kids to be STUPID! “

How can anyone support the Republican Party after reading the Texas platform?

By “anyone” I assume you mean anyone other than white, dumb-fuck, good-old-boys. I’m sure to them these planks of the platform, if they understood them at all, would sound like a good idea. Repeat the Voters Right Act? Oh, yeah, we can stop them “undesirables” from voting. They’re mostly criminals anyway. Don’t teach thinking? Oh yeah, who needs it. My grandpappy taught me everything I need to know. And we don’t need any of that new-fangled sciencey stuff that’s always changing anyway and scarin’ us about beach front property in Austin.

Of course, mostly folks don’t read the platforms or even know they exist. They vote Republican because of their mantra: Reduce taxes. Get government out of our lives. Reduce taxes. Stop abortions. Reduce taxes. End regulation. Reduce taxes. States rights. Reduce taxes.

Most black people are literate nowadays, so if they really wanted a literacy test they’d have to apply it unevenly to get rid of the blacks without getting rid of a substantial number of white republicans.

I read somewhere that’s how they applied it back in the bad old days; the voter would have to read part of the state constitution, and somehow, white voters were always given easy parts while black voters always got the most difficult.

Most black people are literate nowadays, so if they really wanted a literacy test they’d have to apply it unevenly to get rid of the blacks without getting rid of a substantial number of white republicans.

Well, not quite. The way it had been done before was that there would be ways around giving the tests to whites, while blacks would be presented with literacy tests like this. The link has a link to further sample tests in a PDF.

There would either be two different tests used or a loophole specifically designed to ensure the “right” people would be exempt from the test. If your grandfather could vote and things like that. Poor access to education did disadvantage the blacks from the start, but they weren’t taking any chances. The tests were to weed out blacks, not the poorly educated.

Oh it get even nastier. I read their platform last night, and they also want to repeal the Freedom of Access to Clinical Entrances Law. They basically want to allow protesters of Planned Parenthood to physically block clinic entrances and threaten people trying to obtain Planned Parenthood services, and allow protesters to physically damage the clinics with impunity.

Your application was then reviewed by the three-member Board of Registrars — often in secret at a later date. They voted on whether or not you passed. It was entirely up to the judgment of the Board whether you passed or failed. If you were white and missed every single question they could still pass you if — in their sole judgment — you were “qualified.” If you were Black and got every one correct, they could still flunk you if they considered you “unqualified.”

Cenk used to self-identify as a moderate Republican, and I think he’s on record as having voted for Republican presidents, but that’s of the past. Now he just sees the Republican party as a party of crazies.

It’s not as if this sort of thing is new. It goes back at least as far as the roots of Protestantism—probably much, much further.

Here are some quotes from Martin Luther:

“Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and understanding.”

“Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but—more frequently than not—struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.”

“Reason is the Devil’s greatest whore; by nature and manner of being she is a noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the Devil’s appointed whore; whore eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot and destroyed, she and her wisdom… Throw dung in her face to make her ugly. She is and she ought to be drowned in baptism… She would deserve, the wretch, to be banished to the filthiest place in the house, to the closets.”

Consider also a Luther comment on “lying for Jesus”:
“What harm would it do, if a man told a good strong lie for the sake of the good and for the Christian church … a lie out of necessity, a useful lie, a helpful lie, such lies would not be against God, he would accept them.”

FWIW Rachel Maddow had an interesting take on this. She pointed out that the same “sort of process” happens on the left as the farther than acceptable lefties sometimes formulate the platform at the state level but more rational heads prevail at the national level.

But here’s the difference: The lefty platforms often prove impractical, out-of-touch with the mainstream (or reality) and make silly promises like free lattes and puppies for everyone. But they are idealist, focused on improving people’s lives, promoting education, etc. Now contrast that with what the farther to the right than acceptable demand in their platforms. Talk about someone going medieval on your ass. Yikes!

Rebellion against parental authority is part of the process in which children turn into adults. Later, experience and critical thinking skills allow them to tell the difference between a difference of opinion, and teenage angst. What you end up with, is an individual human being with their own thoughts, not some clone of yourself. That’s kind of the point, isn’t it?

When my daughter turned 18, and told me of her plans to be a showgirl in Vegas, my head almost exploded (I may have had a stroke, too. It’s kind of a blur). But end the end, the decision was hers. Luckily, I raised her to think critically. That, and a wise investment in some martial arts training when she was 12, kept her safe. She ended up all but paying for her own college education. Today she has her own career, a good man for a husband, and, someday (if there’s any justice), children that will give her the same number of gray hairs that she gave me.